The GunsOnPegs Podcast

With Chris away on holiday, Digby Taylor, MD of GunsOnPegs steps into his shoes to share the results of the 2025 Game Shooting and Shoot Owner Census. He reveals how the cost of shooting has changed over the last few years, how buying habits have evolved and provides some fascinating stats on the environment and habitat work carried out by shoots each year.

Taking inspiration from the Census, the chaps join forces to put together their dream shooting line, made up of characters living, dead and even fictional.

Now that the Game Fair dust has settled and Jake has recovered from his hangover, normal service is resumed.

We talk about BASC's latest advice for sensible social media usage, look ahead to the grouse season with the GWCT's forecast for the grouse season, PLUS we answer *another* listener question from Sweden, and share not one, but two great Gran's Days Out, including one especially for young shots.

George, Chris, Sam, Jake and Avian take to the stage to look back at the last hundred(ish) episodes. Over four days of shooting waffle, 300 drinks, hundreds of anecdotes, quandries, dilemmas and dubious opinions, distilled down into a 40 minute celebration in front of a live audience at The Game Fair 2025.

Here's to the next hundred!

Jake, Avian and Sam gathered around the mics to recap what's happening this weekend at the Game Fair.

With the news that the government has thrown out a petition to ban driven grouse shooting, George, Jake, Avian and Sam are in chipper mood. They celebrate the organisations and individuals who have helped to see off the attack, by engaging politicians and taking them to see the moors in all their glory.

George, recording from the fishing lodge on the banks of the River Carron, is keen to get back to the river in a desperate attempt to save his blank week, but not before hearing about the various clay-busting adventures of his co-hosts.

Listen out for important village notices about the Game Fair live show and the 2025 Order of the Garters Shoot Day.

Ollie Medforth - as seen (briefly) on The Apprentice - is a yorkshireman to his boots. Long time friend of the podcast, he's a purveyor of award-winning fruit liqueurs and his family host one of Yorkshire's leading driven shoots, and one of the most highly regarded sim shoots in the country.

Ollie gives us some insight in the what it takes to make and sell industrial quantities of sloe gin, as well as his love of his native county.

We also issue a Game Fair invitation and give some more details of the live recording we'll be hosting at the show.

It has been a busy month. George, Sam, Avian and Jake gather around the mics to compare notes on Rally Clays, the World Gunmakers' Evening, talking to politicians about shooting, removing cows from rivers (long story) and lots more besides. PLUS there's an update on Avian's latest apply challenge and news of the GunsOnPegs Podcast at this year's Game Fair.

Tim Furbank is a founder and director of Oakbank Game & Conservation Ltd, a company which supplies clients across the UK with seed and advice, helping them with grant applications, ecological surveys, and habitat creation and management. He's a keen game shot and is lead judge for the Schoffel Countryside Awards.

Marcus Janssen, Executive Director of Schoffel Country, needs no introduction, this being his third appearance on the GunsOnPegs Podcast (albeit always with a friend as moral support.) He's as passionate a countryman as you could wish to find.

Tim and Marcus join us for a special edition of the podcast to talk about the new Schoffel Countryside Awards, which aim to shine a light on the finest displays of working conservation across the UK.

Find out more about the awards here

The warm, dry weather that the country has been experiencing in recent weeks has brought with it a rash of wildfires from Dartmoor to the Highlands, prompting a fascinating discussion about the conflict between traditional landscape managers and environmental campaigners over how to manage our wilder spaces.

The wide-ranging discussion takes in questions about land access, the recent Why Moorlands Matter events, new research showing the devastating impact on ground-nesting birds of the cessation of predator control, and the need for an outcomes based approach to conservation.

We've also received an email from our correspondent in Sweden, who details a refreshingly robust approach to a potentially traumatic roadkill incident, as well as clear guidance from BASC on what to do (and what not to do) in a similar situation here in the UK. Finally, we set Avian an appropriately West Country challenge. No badgers were harmed in the making of this episode.

Ian Sweetman joins Chris and George to talk about his life in the guntrade. Having started at the bench at age 15, and having worked at some of the country's best-known gun brands before striking out on his own, there are few better placed to offer an insight into the life of a gunmaker.

Ian is also one half of the husband and wife team behind the new rural-focussed social network 'Stile'.

Ian helps to offer some advice to two young game shots ahead of a red-letter shoot day next season, and his views on the dangers of flaming headlights on the A1.